The Tacoma News Tribune recently published a summary of the career of our founder Maxine Mimms. The article describes her initial efforts to promote college attendance through the founding of the Tacoma branch of Evergreen State College and the Maxine Mimms Academies.

"Dr. Mimms embodies the mission of Dr. King through her extraordinary dedication to opening doors of higher education to the diverse community in Tacoma," said Committee Chairwoman Erin Lee. "Our event theme is ‘Beloved Community’ and we gave special consideration to nominees whose work focused on understanding our community and its needs, and delivering solutions."

The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Service Award strives not only to recognize and encourage excellence in community service activities carried out by an individual, organization or group, but also seeks to encourage similar efforts by others who may want to serve in the community. It is presented each year during the City’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Celebration before an average crowd of approximately 2,000 attendees.

The first seedlings at our Tacoma hydroponics project are growing vigorously. We could perhaps be taking reservations for a sampling, time and place to be announced. Sadly, you will find that time and place to be rather inconvenient, so please wait for our next public event.

AN EVENING OF EXQUISITE CUISINE, LIVE ENTERTAINMENT ---- Please join us for a splendid occasion honoring the legacy of Dr. Maxine Mimms and the Grand-Reopening of the Maxine Mimms Academies Youth Enhancement Initiative.

We will acknowledge the contributions of our sponsors and inform friends and supporters about our new urban farming initiative.

COME AND HEAR ABOUT The Garden of Eden Hydroponic Certification, Employment and Training Program.

New programs and activities are currently being added. Personal profiles, messaging and updates, will further enhance communication among teachers, students and community stakeholders of MMA.

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Greetings, and a Special Thank You to the Honorable Mayor Marilyn Strickland of Tacoma for hosting the recent fundraiser in support of the Maxine Mimms Academies Garden of Eden Demonstration Project - an innovative approach to gardening that can provide year-round access to fresh, affordable fruits and vegetables for children and their families in our community.

Garden of Eden

The Garden of Eden is a Community Agricultural Initiative. It features the collaboration of the Maxine Mimms Academies - a 501(c)(3) non-profit, The Evergreen State College Tacoma, and the City of Tacoma. The Garden of Eden is designed to grow healthy, safe, affordable, organic vegetables, herbs, plants and flowers all year long. In addition to supplying abundant quality food, this initiative creates many long term, good paying, local jobs and a new sustainable economic institution.

There’s a growing body of evidence that urban farming not only strengthens community bonds, but it also reduces violence and stress. Research has shown that if you diminish violence, people will be less stressed, and less–stressed people eat healthier.

By embracing indoor urban farming, we are not deluding ourselves that we're solving the food desert problem. What we’re doing is using food as a tool to change individual lives and to change our community for the better.

The bigger win is jobs – and jobs nurture a whole community, with pride, self esteem, good health and a true sense of community. Thanks for your support.

The Maxine Mimms Academies' local community food growing project is called the Garden of Eden. An indoor farming demonstration pilot program designed to grow affordable, organic herbs, fruits and vegetables all year round. This fundraiser is the first in a series of events that will highlight the importance of our communities access to fresh affordable organic fruits and vegetables.

The Garden of Eden is an innovative new approach to urban farming, and offers a holistic approach to food access and community nutrition policy; to better community health, ecological integrity, food education, skills training, local job creation and the development of complete communities.

A short presentation will discuss the advantages of year-round growing cycles as a sustainable business model, new technologies for growing organic foods at much lower cost, new work opportunities for local residents and the impact on our communities needed economic revitalization. A fabulous silent auction will also be held, so come prepared and enjoy the company - all are welcome.

The Inter-Generational Mentoring Model is designed to bring seniors and youth in our communities together - deliberately, intentionally, and on purpose. They have much to learn from each other. The seniors are the glue that's missing in our attempts to mentor our youth and young adults. Instead of a steady hand and the wisdom of age at life's many decision points, we see our kids making decisions without choices. They simply don't understand that without choices, there's no decision to be made. They are simply reacting, and that's always a bad idea. How would they know?

Our beloved President Obama and Michelle were wise enough to bring the grandmother along to the White House to care for and keep the kids grounded. She's the glue that connects the kids to reality, while mom and dad try to solve the world's problems. All kids want and need the grounding rooted in the love, nurturing and acceptance that come from older and wiser adults. The seniors have one foot in the past and one foot in the present. The youth have one foot in the present and one foot in the future.

Together they meet the challenges of the present, and share the benefits of the past and future.

President Obama's message to Students - Stay in School. "This isn't just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you're learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future."

GIRL TALK - Our goal is to provide an outlet for the women in the community that is Empowering, Educational, Entertaining & Fun!

GIRL TALK WORKSHOP is partnering with other organizations in Tacoma to provide workshops for girls/young women between the ages of 12-18. The workshops will provide training and information on various topics or issues such as:

Maxine Mimms Academies (MMA) students at the Senate rostrum with Lt. Governor Owen. They were at the Capitol to testify before the House Education Committee in support of Washington State Mentors. The lieutenant governor was among those who testified. Listen to the testimony in mp3 format

The "School-to-Prison Pipeline" is a reflection of America's current fixation with punishing children rather than educating them. The School-to-Prison Pipeline describes the cumulative effect of various federal, state, and local policies that are leading students away from high school completion towards criminal justice involvement. Many of these policies center around the enforcement of punishment and creating a safe school environment, but the actual implementation of these policies have created greater education disparities under the guise of keeping schools safer.

A major philosophy that has contributed to the negative impact of these policies is "Zero Tolerance". Under this idea, School administrators who use Zero Tolerance - and not all of them do - use suspension or expulsion for certain behaviors after asking few to no questions about the incident.

The impact of "Zero Tolerance" in our public schools has been devastating to African American youth and their families. When a child is suspended or expelled - the whole family pays the price. Routine activities are disrupted, schedules shift, and responsibilities often need to be re-negotiated. The whole family is suspended.

Until recently, concerned parents have been preoccupied with correcting the behavior of their children; getting them the help they need to adapt and excel in the public school environment. The focus of our collective efforts has been to bind the wounds and stop the bleeding. Continued hemorrhaging has been the most visible outcome of our efforts.

Unwittingly, we as a society have declared war on our kids. At Maxine Mimms Academies, we have come to realize that the real need is to "Stop the Bullets" - and the bleeding and hemorrhaging will go away.

The steps we take to accomplish this goal must start with the Tacoma School District and lead to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) in Olympia. Daily operating procedures in our schools stem from the policies adopted and implemented by the Tacoma School District and OSPI.

Disproportionate impact of the current "Zero Tolerance" policies on African American males and children of color in general, is truly cause for alarm. It is time to declare a "State of Emergency"! A whole generation of our children are at risk of being excluded from public education and the benefits a high school diploma can provide. You cannot afford to sit this one out!

In a candid conversation, Dr. Maxine Mimms shares the story of Evergreen State College's early beginnings. She describes how the school became an institution of higher learning, and how the model has been used to educate and prepare a new generation of urban youth in our society. Its mission and its students are far from traditional and its graduates have become leaders in industry throughout the world.